"It was the best of times it was the worst of times"

 

Three against Two  at Senate Hearing on gun violence

"My problem with background checks is you're never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks," Wayne LaPierre, CEO and chief lobbyist for the NRA, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, the first since President Barack Obama laid out new measures to curb gun crime. "None of it makes any sense in the real world."

"Mr. LaPierre, that’s the point. The criminals won’t go to purchase the guns because there’ll be a background check. We’ll stop them from original purchase. You missed that point completely. It’s basic." Senator Dick Durbin (D.IL)

The shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton came up in a U.S. Senate hearing and a White House press briefing Wednesday.

"She was an honor student and a majorette," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Performing at inaugural events last week "was the highlight of her young, 15-year-old life," he said.

 “I bet there are people on our side that can’t believe Obama won because everyone they know voted against him,” Graham said. “The point is that we have different perspectives on this.”

"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."

 

GRAHAM: Well I hope your right, but I can tell people throughout this land, because of the fiscal state of affairs we have, there will be less [SIC] police officers, not more, over the next decade. Response time are gonna be less, not more. So, Captain Kelly, I really do want to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people. I honest to god believe that if we arbitrarily “say nobody in this country can own a 10-round magazine in the future, the people who own them are the kind of people we’re trying to combat to begin with.” There can be a situation where a mother runs out of bullets because of something we do here.

 “Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapons of choice,” said Trotter. “The peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened, violent criminals.”

At this moment you have an outraged public against the gun profiteers and the gutless politicians. I believe in the end the people will win.

Today's Must Read

What Gun Owners Really Want

Growing up around guns and owning them as an adult affords a person memories and experiences that strangers to guns may have trouble understanding. The divide is phenomenological, not political (or not political until it gets to be), like the gulf between those who’ve had sex and those who haven’t or those who smoke and those who’ve never lit up. Pulling a trigger and being prepared to do so cuts patterns in the self. Depending on the nature of your social life, which time around guns can shape and color in ways that I’ll describe, you might forget that these patterns are even there, because you’re surrounded by people who share them—until someone or some event challenges you to answer for your thinking.

Everybody Get Your Guns

 The answer to a petrified, mentally unstable country beset by increasingly ferocious gun massacres? Simple: Get more guns! ~Ben Cohen

After watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on C-SPAN,  I've come to the conclusion it's more important for some people to acquire and own as many assault style weapons, and  high capacity magazine clips as they can afford, than public safety. 

As Chuck Todd pointed out on the Daily Rundown today, even some democratic senators care more about politics than policy.

 Everyone is arming up.

Victims who dare speak up are told to shut up and bury their child.

I wonder if Senate Judiciary member Jeff Sessions (r. Mobile) is aware of the latest incident of gun violence happening now in Sweet Home Alabama?

(Reuters) - A standoff continued on Wednesday with a gunman who boarded an Alabama school bus and fatally shot the driver before fleeing with a young child and holing up in an underground bunker, authorities said.

 

Is there a method to Mo's madness or just madness?

The Space Shuttle Enterprise being tested at Marshall Space Flight Center during 1978.

 I keep thinking Mo can't embarrass Alabama and the 5th Congressional District any more, then BAM!  So, now Alabama's GOP Congress Critter Mo Brooks offers a plan to impeach President Obama over budget deficits.  I kid you NOT.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) on Monday offered up a constitutional amendment which would make failure to balance the nation’s budget an impeachable offense.
Brooks’ outlandish proposal calls for a balanced budget within five years, after which time federal spending could not exceed federal revenue.

Does Mo need a Civics lesson?  Doesn't he know CONGRESS controls the purse strings?  Maybe there is a method to Mo's madness...... but if the top employer in your state, not to mention your district, is the United States Military, do you really want to go around calling the Commander in Chief a Socialist, and threaten to impeach him because he won't cut spending on Medicaid and Social Security?

As a matter of fact the top five employers in the state of Alabama are the GOVERNMENT. 

 The state has invested in aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various heavy industries, including automobile manufacturing, mineral extraction, steel production and fabrication. By 2006, crop and animal production in Alabama was valued at $1.5 billion. In contrast to the primarily agricultural economy of the previous century, this was only about 1% of the state's gross domestic product. The number of private farms has declined at a steady rate since the 1960s, as land has been sold to developers, timber companies, and large farming conglomerates.^[125] Occupations outside of agriculture were widespread by 2008. Employment in that year was 121,800 in management occupations; 71,750 in business and financial operations; 36,790 in computer-related and mathematical occupation; 44,200 in architecture and engineering; 12,410 in life, physical, and social sciences; 32,260 in community and social services; 12,770 in legal occupations; 116,250 in education, training, and library services; 27,840 in art, design and media occupations; 121,110 in healthcare; 44,750 in fire fighting, law enforcement, and security; 154,040 in food preparation and serving; 76,650 in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; 53,230 in personal care and services; 244,510 in sales; 338,760 in office and administration support; 20,510 in farming, fishing, and forestry; 120,155 in construction and mining, gas, and oil extraction; 106,280 in installation, maintenance, and repair; 224,110 in production; and 167,160 in transportation and material moving.^[8]

I mean, really?  Is this just another one of your political stunts to rile up your base to prevent productive work from occurring, or, do you really believe you are helping to bring jobs to our district, our state, and our country?  Republicans control the House of Representatives.  Seems like to me if republicans really wanted a balanced budget we would have one.


Biting off your nose to spite your face Mr. Brooks?

Please, No More Mo Embarresment

 

All Elected Government Officials - From the Supreme Court, to the President of the United States and all the way down to the County Dog Catcher, taxpayers pay their salary and provide the funding for them to do their job. We pay for every aspect of their job. So in a sense, I guess you could say our whole country is run on socialism.

Just when you thought it couldn't get  worse, Congress Critter Mo Brooks (r. hypocrite) claims he doesn't know the difference between a Marxist and the President of the United States of America, but he does know the President is a Socialist,  at a town hall meeting in Athens,AL.

 Athens is the home of Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant, a Tennessee Valley Authority installation first operated in 1974, that was once the world's largest nuclear plant. It provides many jobs to the area and most of the electricity for the Huntsville-Decatur Metro Area.

"I don't know if he is a Marxist or not but I believe he is a socialist," U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks said in response to a comment from the audience.

I guess it depends on what your definition of Socialism IS Mo.

 Socialism.

There is nothing more feared and hated in America.

The word alone sends shivers down the spine of the American people.

Those three syllables conger up images of Big Brother Government ruling over us all, telling us what to eat, wear, buy, and think. Our children in national uniform being indoctrinated with propaganda in government education camps that use to be schools, turning them into little slaves. While their parents work twelve hour shifts in the concentration camp that slaughters rich successful billionaires, as the poor and needy get a million dollars a month in welfare. A murderous government waging a war against freedom and liberty to gain complete control over everyone and everything.

You know, the way things were under that socialist Bill Clinton. And the way things are now under that socialist Barack Obama.

Socialism is taxpayer funds being used collectively to benefit society as a whole, despite income, contribution, or ability.

Sounds horrible, huh?

Yet no one called George W. Bush a, Marxist, Socialist, dictator, king, or shouted tyranny when he was President of the United States.

Well I hate to be the one to tell you, but Socialism, which you have been told to fear all your life, is responsible for all this...

1. The Military/Defense - The United States military is the largest and most funded socialist program in the world.  It operates thanks to our taxpayer dollars and protects the country as a whole. From the richest citizens to the homeless who sleep under the bridge. We are all protected by our military whether we pay taxes or not. This is complete socialism.
2. Highways/Roads - Those roads and highways you drive on every single day are completely taxpayer funded. Your tax dollars are used to maintain, expand, and preserve our highways and roads for every one's use. President Eisenhower was inspired by Germany's autobahn and implemented the idea right here in America. That's right, a republican president created our taxpayer funded, national highway system. This was a different time, before the republican party came down with a vicious case of rabies that never went away.

4. Police - Ever had a situation where you had to call the police? Then you have used a taxpayer funded socialist program. Anyone can call the police whether they pay taxes or not. They are there to protect and serve the community, not individuals. This is complete socialism on a state level, but still socialism all the same. Would you rather have to swipe your credit card before the police will help you?

5. Fire Dept. - Hopefully you have never had a fire in your home. But if you have, you probably called your local taxpayer-funded fire department to put the fire out. Like police, this is state socialism. You tax dollars are used to rescue your entire community in case of a fire. It use to be set up where you would pay a fee every month to the fire dept. for their service. If you didn't pay, they let your house burn down. Sadly, a man from Tennessee had this exact situation happen to him in 2011 because he didn't pay his $75.00 fee. I guess that small town in Tennessee would rather let people's houses burn down that resort to evil socialism. So don't take for granted the fact that you have a 24/7 fire dept. to put out your burning home thanks to socialism.

11. War - That's right! War would not be possible without socialism. Your tax dollars are used to fight wars for your country. This is Big Government at it's biggest. Private companies don't attack other countries, at least not yet. Government is the only entity in America that can defend us from foreign enemies and our tax dollars are used for every second of it. Socialism has brought down Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Bin Laden. War may very well be the most socialist thing on this list.

 What The Edward said;

Dear America: 
Please accept my apologies that this District in Alabama has elected this pathetic excuse of a radio shock-jock to office. Because the town hall meeting was in Athens, I believe Mo must have been confused and thought he was on WVNN. Mo Brooks is very embarrassing.

SMH

Rep. Mo Brooks (r. 05) bringing jobs to north Alabama!

 

NOT.  So, I log in to  facebook  tonight and people are asking wtf is wrong with the Alabama GOP Congressman who proposed a bill that would effectively kill the United States government?  I didn't need a picture to know they were talking about Mo Brooks.  That's right (pun intended),  the Congress Critter from the 5th district who has basically been the government for most of his adult life, wants to kill the government.  Sigh

It takes either someone with moxie, or an idiot, to propose what Mo Brooks, the Representative of Alabama’s 5th District, did on Monday. His proposal, the “Protecting America’s Solvency Act of 2013,” seems to have been written by someone who has no familiarity with American politics whatsoever and who has never taken a civics class.
Even worse, it would, in effect, eliminate the government’s ability to regulate virtually anything.

I vote for moxie.

Section 3, subsection (a)(4) of Brooks’ bill outlines how the measure would effectively prevent the government (both state and federal) from levying fines against companies which violate regulations. The provision reads in part: “No court of the United States or of any State may order any increase in taxes or other revenue measures…” A fine or penalty is defined by federal code as a revenue measure, which means that the government’s ability to levy fines or penalties against corporations which pollute, injure or kill people through negligence would be eliminated. Since these types of legal disputes are typically processed through the court system, this portion of the bill would immediately render both state and federal governments impotent should any issues arise. Another Deepwater Horizon? Couldn’t do anything about it. Someone wants to drill on federal land? There’d be nothing to stop them, and the government couldn’t even charge them for the right to do so. A private company’s huge oil rig plopped down 500 feet off of Miami Beach? That would be allowed, no problem, all thanks to this bill…should it pass.

Be sure and read the comments, here is a sample;

 If these republican asshats spent as much time passing job bills & actually doing the work of the people instead of coming up with these stupid laws the country would be in better shape. Stupid truly is as stupid does.

  The sad thing is that the people of Alabama will probably re-elect this idiot.

  SO! Since Alabama gets huge federal dollars to stay afloat, does this idiot think these corporations are going to keep the states going. Who is going to build roads, keep up the military etc., etc., etc. AMAZING!

The GOP now dominates politics in Alabama and plans to keep it that way.

 Idiocy and moxie – surely they are not mutually exclusive. It does seem, that the two are in full bloom in our government. One hopes it is the final purging of old, worn out ideas and people in government.

Keep HOPE alive y'all.
RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer shaking my head.

The Power of the Press is Awesome and Awful

Bill Hudson's image of Parker High School student Walter Gadsden being attacked by dogs was published in The New York Times on May 4, 1963.

What's that you say?  The Birmingham news media knew of plots to kill Civil Rights leaders and didn't report it?  I'm shocked!  Shocked I tell you!  Not.

Our understanding of the “good” has expanded beyond the lone-dreamer theory to embrace other activists, like King’s partner in Birmingham, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Yet the evil segregationist archetype is fixed in the popular mind as the villainous housewife of “The Help” or the cretinous mob of “Django Unchained” — nobody we’d ever know, or certainly ever be.

But the disquieting reality is that the conflict was between not good and evil, but good and normal. The brute racism that today seems like mass social insanity was a “way of life” practiced by ordinary “good” people.

According to the Southern community’s consensus of “normal,” those fighting for rights now considered mainstream were “extremists,” and public servants could rationalize plans to murder men like Shuttlesworth, confident that they were on the right side of history.

Consider new evidence about a plan by Connor to have Shuttlesworth assassinated. Under Connor’s orders, Detective Tom Cook found a black man vulnerable to the law, supplied him with a gun and planted him by the steps of a church where Shuttlesworth was speaking one night. The plot was foiled when a passing police car frightened the hit man away.

What distinguishes this from other officially sanctioned schemes to kill Shuttlesworth is proof that it was known by the state’s largest news organization, The Birmingham News, owned by the Newhouse family, which also sponsored extensive surveillance of local citizens.

Read all about it in this article by Diane McWhorter the author of Carry Me Home. 

McWhorter grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and recounts being about the same age as the girls killed in the September 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, though she "was growing up on the wrong side of the revolution". While four black girls were murdered in that day's bombing, McWhorter recalls that the only repercussion of the killings on her white high school was the cancellation of a play rehearsal. Carry Me Home describes how bigotry was prevalent among whites and her interviews and reviews of documents from the civil rights era showed "the long tradition of enmeshment between law enforcers and Klansmen", ranging from local and state police to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.^[2]
She describes how local political leaders and newspaper editors supporting segregation exercised consistently poor judgment, with police chief Bull Connor consistently rescuing the cause of civil rights demonstrators, responding to peaceful protests from local teenagers with high-pressure fire hose and police dogs. Wyatt Tee Walker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference recounted how "Birmingham would have been lost if Bull had let us go down to the city hall and pray".'^[2]
McWhorter notes the May 3, 1963, photo by Associated Press photographer Bill Hudson of Walter Gadsden, an African-American bystander who had been grabbed by a sunglasses-wearing police officer, while a German Shepherd lunged at his chest.^[3] The photo appeared above the fold, covering three columns in the next day's issue of The New York Times, as well as in other newspapers nationwide.^[4] McWhorter wrote that Hudson's photo that day drove "international opinion to the side of the civil rights revolution".^[5]

Let's just give up on the Constitution, except for the 2nd amendment of course, and let the media run the country and decide who is guilty or innocent.

GOP dominates Politics in Alabama! YeeHaw!

First Confederate Flag, now flying over Alabama State Capitol

 
This photo of Montgomery is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I can't figure out of the Alabama GOP is bragging or complaining about their "domination" of Alabama politics  in a recent article on al.com entitled;  GOP dominates politics in Alabama and plans to keep it that way.  Kind of sounds like they are bragging but....

 "I believe the days are coming that you are going to have to be a Republican, unless you are in a minority district," to get elected, said state Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.

In any event, the article confirmed my assertion the only way to get elected  in Sweet Home Alabama is run for office as a democrat in order to take advantage of the traditional democratic base, then govern as as a republican.  And you wonder why they are called politicians......

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State Rep. Lynn Greer, of Rogersville, has been elected to office off and on since 1974.
He's in his fourth term in the Alabama House and spent nearly a decade on the Public Service Commission.

The Alabama Legislature begins its annual regular session on Feb. 5. Frank Couch/fcouch@al.com  

He's now a Republican, but until the late 1980s he had a "D'' by his name like almost all of Alabama's elected leaders. Greer said his politics didn't change: He's always been conservative. "You basically had liberal Democrats, middle-of-the-road Democrats and conservative Democrats, which probably should have been Republicans," Greer said of his early political career.
He was not alone.
"If you were going to get elected, you had to run as a Democrat," said Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, a former chairman of the state GOP credited with orchestrating the Republicans' 2010 takeover of the state Legislature.

So, now that they have gerrymandered their way into dominance, and, since it's no way a democrat, strike that, a real democrat, can ever win, what does that mean for the Great State of Alabama?   Here is a preview......

Alabama will continue to be #1 in Football and dead last on everything else.

Why?  Because  in our rich southern heritage, culture trumps self interest. 

“They are very biblical down here.”

Today's Must Read
Media Politics:  Outrage, Lies and Occasional Facts

Republicans are stuck with, I mean on, stoopid~Edit

Either the Grand Old Party thinks we the people have amnesia, or, that we are stoopid.   Former Mississippi Governor,  Haley ( R. White Citizens Council) Barbour, and Louisiana Governor Bobby (R. Exorcism) Jindal are begging their party to STFU, I mean stop being stupid, as more white people mourn, and the RNC reelects the man responsible for the mega losses the party suffered in the last election cycle.

Psst Haley and Bobby....too little, too late!  You see, it's a funny thing about words and actions, once they are spoken, or the act committed,  you can't take them back.

 Actions speak louder than words.  

Good luck with that rebranding thingy.

With democrats like Harry Reid who needs republicans?

 Maddow Slams Reid for Failing on Filibuster Reform: 60 is the new 60

Wouldn't it be nice if the Senate Majority  Leader actually represented the democratic wing of the democratic party?  Sometimes I wonder if the democratic party is afraid to win.  How can President Obama even HOPE to be successful when the democratic leadership works against him? 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Harry Reid screwed up again. This time it was, once again, allowing the minority party in the Senate to have a free hand to gum up the works.
Reid refused to reform filibuster rules in the Senate in any meaningful way, because the election season’s over, his position is secure and screw you.

Harry Reid gives likes to give em hell at the wrong time. and to the wrong people.

Who says there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans?
When Republicans take power, they band together and fight Democrats. When Democrats take power, they split apart and eat their own.

 What good is electing democrats if they govern like republicans?

A real liberal view: Why real liberals support the Constitution of the United States of America, all of it.

Fellow Blogger PoliticsAlabama, who has posting privileges (which I don't)  at Left in Alabama, posted a diary entitled A liberal view:  Why liberals should support the second amendment (as if we don't), linking to a Daily Kos diary entitled, Why Liberals should love the second amendment (as if we don't).

Let me clear up the *ahem* misconception.

Just because we self-proclaimed liberals want sensible gun control legislation to prevent the gun violence that demeans human life and tears communities apart doesn't mean we don't support the second amendment.

Just because we self-proclaimed liberals don't believe the solution to gun violence is more guns doesn't mean we don't support the second amendment.

Here are some words from a real liberal (not to be confused with a self-proclaimed liberal) about the constitution and gun rights.

Saturday night just ain't that special
Yeah, I got the constitution on the run
'Cause even though we've got the right
To defend our home, to defend our life
Got to understand to get it in hand about the guns

 It's not about the 2nd amendment.  It's about saving lives.  I Am Because You Are:  The Sandy Hook Promise

“This is a Promise we make to our precious children. Because each child, every human life is filled with promise, and though we continue to be filled with unbearable pain we choose love, belief, and hope instead of anger.”

RedEye Around the Web

Alabama Congress Critter Mo Brooks (r. 05) made Alabama proud on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC last night.  NOT.  Mo announced he was not going to vote to temporarily extend the debt limit.  Oh well, at least Mo didn't call the President a Socialist/ Kenyan/ Muslim, or threaten to do anything short of shooting illegals. 

Can you say school officials who are stuck on stupid?   

 HARTSELLE, Alabama - A local mother of an elementary student has started a petition against a proposal to have a live-shooter drill at F.E. Burleson Elementary School.

In her plea for signatures the mother writes;  "This type of drill, where a pretend gunman comes into the school with a fake gun, is mentally detrimental to elementary-aged school children. I believe a lockdown of the school is sufficient enough. No child deserves to be involved in a situation where someone is even pretending to threaten their lives."
Amen and Amen.


Meanwhile former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D.) has served 400 days in prison for a crime that is not a crime.  Per Dana Siegelman

He is strong; he is charismatic; he is positive, but he is extremely disappointed. It is not the separation, which hurts him, for he is closer to his family than ever. It is not the lack of freedom, which causes him grief, for he cherishes the time he has to work on his book, coach the young men around him, read, and grow spiritually. He is not crippled by the fact that he has spent more than a year in prison, he is burdened by the greater injustice that surrounds him - the use of the justice system as a political weapon, concealed, quiet, and effective. He wants change.

What's that you say?  Recent elections show a strong link between racism and political preference?  I'm shocked!  Shocked I tell you.  NOT.

 “The election of the country’s first black president had the ironic upshot of opening the door for old-fashioned racism to influence partisan preferences after it was long thought to be a spent force in American politics",

Today's Must Read

Freedom Rider.  The State Killing of  Aaron Swartz

An apology to Left in Alabama, and a question for the Alabama Democratic Party

 New Alabama Congressional Map

When the Cats and other Critters were talking about gerrymandering and redistricting as far back as 2007 and 2009,  I was kind of  taken a back because I thought they were bashing racially gerrymandered districts to abolish long held minority voting blocks,  by questioning  why we still need minority voting districts.

Little did I know they may have been trying to warn us (democrats)  republicans were plotting to, as my Daddy says,  spank us with our own switch.

The question is...did we (democrats) mess around and let them (republicans) redistrict the 7th district, paving the way for a conservative who happens to be black to mis-represent Alabama's 7th congressional district?

I'm  just asking....

"Happy Roe Day"

Fist Dap RIFuture.org

The Roe v Wade United States Supreme Court Decision made it legal for a woman( not to be confused with a man/politician), with her doctor,  to choose to have a safe, legal abortion, without legal restrictions, under the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, under the right to privacy.

Yes, this is the same Constitution that grants men and women the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment.

I do not blog for choice. I blog for reproductive justice.

If you are against abortion don't have one.

That is all.

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live" Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 It is easy to forget that in his day King was considered a dangerous troublemaker. He was harassed by the FBI and vilified in the media.

Regular readers know I don't celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday because it's a painful reminder of why Martin Luther King, Jr. is not here to celebrate this day.

Today's Must Read
Dr. King and President Obama

If only Martin Luther King could have lived to see this day. I'm fairly certain he'd be walking on air - with the help of a cane of course. He would, after all, be eighty-four now.

Saturday Night Special Links I Like

 Michael D'Antuono:  A Tale of Two Hoodies

 If you never read another thing I post you must read this thought provoking and factual timeline describing American racism against blacks,  found on the wonderful blog Abagond.  Be sure and read the comments.

This is what Attorney General Eric Holder tried to talk about.
This is what Reverend Jeremiah Wright was talking about.
This is what General Colin Powell is talking about.

This is what  ALL Americans need to talk about if we want our country to make progress, and not go back to before.

"Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America.  And that makes this election extremely important." Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D. Selma)

An armed, unregulated, populace, keeping real and imagined tyranny at bay, one assault weapon at a time

The Real Threats to America's Security

What do you want to bet if this was a picture of a   black man, with a Black Liberation flag hanging in the background, watching The New Black Panther Party on TV, surrounded by weapons, calling for black people to take up arms against the government,  accusing the government of trying to take their guns away and calling it  tyranny,  we would have us some gun control legislation quick, fast and in a hurry?

I'm just saying....the NRA has riled up the survivalist....you know...the people who have been buying up guns every since President Obama was first elected, and who want to secede from the Union because he was re-elected.  

It makes you wonder whose side some, not to be confused with all, law enforcement officials and elected officials are on.

Our vision of this country is the same: We want a place where we all have rights. Specifically the right to own a pile of military assault weapons without anyone monitoring us so we can train and plan and then secretly block the emergency exits to the building. It's a country where we have the right to fight for our freedoms against all enemies, foreign, domestic... or even the ones that might be imaginary. It's a home where my right to swing my fist ends where your nose, torso, neck, and the back of your head begin. But only after it's all over, because people don't have the right to ask what I do with my guns, or where I'm keeping them, or whether several psychiatrists think I need to be heavily medicated. That's just like what the Nazis did.

Radio Boy, this Parody is just for you!  Enjoy!

Weapon Wonderland Song Parody (to be sung to Winter Wonderland)By Madeleine Begun Kane
Gun sales surge. Are you listenin’?
Ammunition keeps glistenin’.
They’re arming tonight and causing a fright.
U.S. Constitution arms the land.
People die for no reason.
Children shot! ‘Tis the season.
A terrible blight, each night after night.
Gun rights absolutists harm our land.
NRA and cronies claim our homeland
Must allow their arms in every town,
Claiming guns will help us.
We say “No man!
“The murder stats have got to go way down.”
Weapon fans have conspired.
Now our nation is mired.
With lives we have paid.
New laws must be made.
Or soon we’ll have a gun in every hand.

Are we safe yet?

Memories and Milestones

MLK Support for Economic Justice Overshadowed By "I Have a Dream" Speech

Personal matters prevented me from acknowledging Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on what would have been his 84th birthday had he not been gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, TN  on April 4 in 1968. 

 At 6:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, 1968, while he was standing on the motel's second floor balcony, King was struck by a single .30 bullet fired from a Remington 760 Gamemaster.^[14] The bullet entered through his right cheek, breaking his jaw, neck and several vertebrae as it travelled down his spinal cord, severing the jugular vein and major arteries in the process before lodging in his shoulder. By the force of the blast, King's necktie was ripped completely off his shirt. He fell violently backwards onto the balcony unconscious.

Today marks the third anniversary of the birth of  RedEye's Front Page  after I was forced to start my own blog after being booted from the pages of Left in Alabama.  Not much has changed in three years.  I'm still banished from the pages of Left in Alabama.  The right still hates President Obama and Democrats more than they love our country,  and I am still asking what is wrong with republicans?

The same party that impeached President Clinton for trying to conceal a private, consensual, sexual affair, from his wife, daughter, and the country, is the same party that now wants to impeach President Obama  over the use of Executive Orders on guns, comparing him to  Saddam Hussein , and accusing him of using kiddies as human shields.

The same party who didn't say a word about Bush and Company sending our troops to war based on dead wrong intelligence, and outing an undercover CIA agent now  ask how dare President Obama do anything in response to the mass killings of 6 adults and 20 first graders.

This is what they oppose

they are opposed to closing the gun show loophole, limiting magazine capacity, or reinstating the assault weapons ban.

 My question is, why?

This anniversary finds me still weeping for our cities, our counties, our states, our country, and our world.  Forgive me if I choose not to celebrate.  I will take this opportunity to thank readers, commenter's, lurkers and others for your continued support.  If you are interested in becoming a contributor to RedEye's Page drop me a line and a writing sample at redeyeblog.alabama@yahoo.com.


Today's must reads and weep
Mrs. Santa I want a Bullet Proof Vest and a Doll
Let the Children Bleed
America should see the Newtown Carnage

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

Things the Second Amendment to the Constitituion does NOT allow We the People to do

Image Time magazine

 I am still trying to figure out how  a well regulated militia being necessary to a free State, the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed on   morphed into... an armed, unregulated populace who have the right to cling to  assault weapons just in the case there is a need to overthrow the government.

Allow me to set the record straight.

The well regulated militia the 2nd amendment refers to were slave patrols, land stealer's and Indian killers...all necessary to a the security of a free state....built with stolen labor on stolen land.

 

The 2nd amendment does not mean we the people can protect ourselves from our government in the event they abuse our civil liberties.

The 2nd amendment does not mean we the people can rise up and over throw the government of the United States of America when they infringe upon our civil rights

 

The 2nd amendment does not mean we the people can protect ourselves, or our homes, from government intrusion.

The 2nd amendment does not give we the people the right to overthrow the government when they take our rights away.

 

The 2nd amendment does not give we the people the right to overthrow our  government when they dismantle democracy.

This is the reality of what we the people must do to protect ourselves from our government.

"To protect ourselves from government, we must improve education and free access to voting and exercising that right to vote, and become the rulers of our government that our Constitution was supposed to make us.  And for good education, we must improve rules governing the media which massively shapes public opinion.  Today, we have 90% of our media concentrated in ownership by 6 or 7 mega-corporations.  The news we get is materially altered for corporate profit and not for truth or good democratic government.
Ultimately, i think that unbridled capitalism (such as ours has become) and good democracy are at odds.  We have become a corporatocracy from a democracy, let's face it."

Today marks one month since 20 children and 6 women were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 Gun advocates are ginning up fear because it's good for business.

Senator Rand Paul (r. KY) and Rep. Steve Stockman (r. TX) are threatening to impeach the President over gun control that hasn't even happened yet.

Let us march on until victory is won...at the ballot box.

RedEye's National InSecurity Week in Review

 

Remember the color-coded terrorism advisory scale created by a Homeland Security Presidential directive in response to the 9/11 attacks?

Remember when Bush and Company said they were sending our sons and daughters to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight-them-there-so-we-don't-have-to-fight-them-here?

What color is the Terra Lert?

Does Terra Lert brown mean run, or run and hide?

Are your Ducks taped?

Is your watta bottled?  

 Will 1776 commence again if guns are taken away?

Are we safe yet?

The response to President Obama's special  task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden to create proposals to decrease gun violence proved to be an economic stimulus for gun dealers/manufactures.  The proposed recommendations produced calls for a Gun Appreciation Day to send a loud an clear message to Congress and President Obama to keep your "hands off my guns",.  Ironically, this event will be held on the same day we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr, who was shot and killed  by a single .30 bullet fired from a Remington 760 Gamemaster rifle while fighting for non violent social change.

Waive your rights while waving your guns!  YeeHaw!!

 Next month, the Supreme Court will take up a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the most effective law of its kind in the history of the United States. A century after the Civil War, the act, in abolishing many forms of discrimination employed by the Southern states, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, finally turned the legal right for African-Americans in those states to vote into an actual right to vote. Bipartisan congressional majorities have reauthorized the law four times, most recently in 2006. (It passed the House overwhelmingly and the Senate unanimously, and was signed into law by George W. Bush.) The question now is whether the Supreme Court will strike down the Voting Rights Act as a violation of states’ rights.

Psst!  Mr. President Obama  sir, you know you are doing something wrong when Joe Scarborough,  and the mainstream media, of all people, accuses you having too many white men in the White House.   I don't know why anyone is surprised women and minorities need not apply for high level positions with the Romney, I mean Obama, administration.  I knew when the white, I mean right wing media made candidate Obama renounce, reject and repudiate Reverend Jeremiah Wright, poor black folks, not to be confused with rich black folks, were going to get left behind. 

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

No!  No!  No!  God Help America.

Gun violence saturates our children’s lives and relentlessly threatens them every day. It has romped through their playgrounds; invaded their birthday parties; terrorized their Head Start classrooms, child care centers, and schools; frolicked down the streets they walk to and from school; danced through their school buses; waited at the red light and bus stop; lurked behind trees; run them down on the corner; shot them through their bedroom windows, on their front porches, and in their neighborhoods.